Practicality
by acciopadfoot
Summary: In which Sirius and Lily bond over war and comfortable Head Dorm beds. And obvious Jily fluff. M rating for language. This makes it seem as if there's Sirius/Lily shipping. I assure you there is none.


**A/N: I don't even know why I wrote this besides the fact that I just love Sirius/Lily bonding. It's really a part of my master jily fic that I have yet to edit/post. But here, enjoy yourselves, I guess.**

**Copyright: Jo Rowling, duh.**

* * *

The Head Girl's dormitory was silent, apart from her foot tapping against the floor as she read. She was immensely enjoying the quiet, considering she had about ten more hours of studying to do before granting herself sleep that night. She had shooed her friends away the previous hour, and the obliged, seeing as they had the same amount of schoolwork to complete.

A loud knock on the door startled Lily from her concentration. "Come in." She told the knocker. It was Sirius Black.

"I'm studying." She told him, after glancing up to see who had disturbed her.

Sirius snorted, "Aren't we all?" He walked in, shutting the door behind him.

"Not you, clearly." Lily was half amused, half irritated at the marauder's presence.

He sat on her bed, looking at her, but not meeting her eyes. She raised her eyebrows, placing A Standard Book of Spells: Grade Seven, on the desk before her.

"I still find it unfair that the Head dorms get softer beds than everyone else." He appeared to be avoiding something, pushing on her mattress with envy.

"Should've gotten Head Boy." Lily told him, amused.

Sirius laughed, "Could you even imagine?" He shook his head, horrified.

Lily shrugged, "James is doing it alright, somehow."

"Yeah but he's all- mature now." Sirius screwed up his face at the word, his distaste evident.

Lily laughed, "I don't know that I'd use James Potter and mature in the same sentence." Sirius did not respond, so Lily continued. "Anyway, did you have a reason for distracting me, other than discussing the comfort of my bed?" Sirius continued to ignore her, still admiring her bed.

"You've probably shagged Prongs on this bed, yeah?" He asked, "Reckon I shouldn't sit here." But he did not move.

"_Sirius." _Lily rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched, all the same. "What do you want?"

The marauder was quiet for another moment, before he sighed. "I just think, I mean, this war and everything. You and Prongs. Frank and Alice getting engaged. With Moony and everything. All the attacks. It's a lot to take in, you know?" He said all of this very fast.

Lily's eyebrows came together, trying to make sense of what he was getting at.

"I really don't." She eventually said. The marauder wouldn't look at her still, he just stared at his feet, upon which he rested his elbows. Lily waited for him to explain. He didn't.

"Sirius?" She said after a moment.

"It's like everything is changing, but not in the way it should. We should be finishing up school and going off and getting all these brilliant jobs. Instead we're preparing to fight."

Lily sighed. It wasn't the first time she'd thought about it, but she tried not to. The Head Girl stood from her desk chair and joined her mate on the bed.

"No one's going to die, you know." Lily told him, knowing where his train of thought was headed.

He smiled, "Always an optimist, eh Evans?" He met her eyes for the first time since entering her dorm and Lily couldn't remember ever seeing such lifelessness in Sirius Black's eyes.

"No." She was serious now. "I'm being realistic. We're all going to fight, I know that. It's dangerous, sure but we- I mean, we have each other, right? Isn't that enough?"

"I used to think so." Sirius nodded, "Not so sure anymore, though. I mean, look at Moony. Not so sure a death eater is going to let him talk his way out of being murdered the way he talks himself out of detention." He shuddered at the thought of his friend faced with a Death Eater.

Lily smiled halfheartedly, "Remus doesn't get detention because he doesn't get caught. You and your mate need to be more discrete." She pushed his arm and got a small smile out of him. "And I think Remus is stronger than you give him credit for. Mentally and physically."

"Hey, he's your mate now too. You just get the benefits." He winked at her, to which her eyes rolled. He ignored her interpretation of Remus, which did not go unnoticed by Lily. He was trying to change the subject, so she complied.

"Two." She said.

"Two what?" The Marauder wanted to know.

"Two sex jokes you've made since walking in here five minutes ago."

"Impressive, yeah?" He grinned, more genuine than the last.

"Not so sure that's the word I'd use, but suit yourself."

Sirius swung his legs up and sprawled out on her bed, while Lily put her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. The Gryffindors were quiet for some time.

"It's hard to reason with myself." Sirius began, dragging Lily from her thoughts. "To think that I'm not partially to blame for all of this. My family, my _kind_," the last word uttered through gritted teeth, "It's all them. They're the reason we're in this damn war, the reason people are dying. Blacks, Malfoys, Potters, even. They're all bloody rotten and they're going so far as to kill innocent people simply because they're of different blood status. It's mental. Completely fucked up. And all we can do is sit here and study for N.E.W.T's." His voice rose and he gestured angrily to Lily's books sprawled out across her desk. "And then we're thrown right into the middle of it. Right in the fucking middle of all the madness and murder."

"You don't have to be an Auror, you know." Lily told the wizard, her voice hardly above a whisper. "You don't _have_ to fight."

Sirius snorted, "Right. And what kind of Gryffindor would I be if I sat back and let my friends die, because I wanted to play Quidditch, instead of fight in a war, caused by my own family?"

"An honest one." Lily argued. "This isn't your fault, Sirius. You can't help being a Pureblood, just like I can't help being Muggleborn. You can fight, or you can not fight and anyone who judges you for it either way isn't worth your time. You shouldn't be held responsible for your family's decisions."

Sirius nodded, but did not respond and Lily did not press the matter.

"Sirius?" Lily said after awhile.

"Mmm?"

"Why are you telling me all of this? Why not talk to James or Remus or Peter?" She was not complaining, simply curious.

Sirius thought about the answer for a moment and then said, "You're more practical." He told her.

Lily snorted, "Right." She said, "I'm more practical than Remus Lupin? I don't think there's a soul alive with that much practicality in them."

Sirius shook his head, smiling slightly. "Not about some things. Moony's better at, you know, not having a temper and yelling at me." She swatted his arm, "But Lupin..." he continued, dodging her hand, "He's scared."

Lily's eyebrows shot up, "And you think I'm not? Sirius, this whole war has started just to destroy my kind. It's bloody terrifying."

"You're angry, is the difference." Sirius looked thoughtful, solemn even. "Moony's not angry, he's- well, it's like this-" He sat up again, looking at the head girl. "You're Muggleborn, but you know it's not wrong, yeah? You know you deserve to be here, see?"

"I suppose, yeah."

"Remus thinks he's a monster. And technically, he is. We- that is, James, Pete, and I- see it in a cool way, his being a monster. You know, sensible, honest Moony could rip a person to shreds if he really wanted to. We don't see him as a monster the way he does. An abomination, if you will. This war, it's not just about Muggleborns, it's about everything that isn't pure. And as much of an angel as our Dear Remus is, he will always see himself as an undeserving monster. He thinks Dumbledore shouldn't have let him come to Hogwarts in the first place, let alone make him a prefect or have people fight for his rights."

Lily stared at the Marauder, she couldn't remember a time he had strung this many words together without cracking a joke. But he carried on, all the same.

"You though, and MacDonald, and all the rest of the Muggleborns, you're not monsters, and you don't think you are. You know why you're here, why you're witches. You have a reason to fight, Remus thinks the Death Eaters and Purebloods are dead on in thinking he shouldn't exist."

"But that's not-" Lily cut in, Sirius spoke over her.

"_I_ know that, you know that. Everyone in the bloody world knows it, but Lupin doesn't. He never will."

Lily swallowed. She studied the wizard carefully, before speaking. "So, you didn't speak to Remus," She began slowly, "Because you reckon he won't be practical, since he thinks the wizarding world has a reason to want to eliminate him." It wasn't a question, more an understanding.

Sirius nodded. Then he continued. "And Prongs is in the same boat as me, isn't he? Pureblood, fighting for Muggleborn rights. Hates a majority of his family for being intolerant dicks. Even though he, at least, got the good parents. Even so, he sees it all the same way I do: kill Death Eaters. Problem solved." He grinned now, "Plus, he's a git, and I didn't feel like having the mickey taken out of me for all this rubbish sentimentality I'm emitting."

Lily grinned. "And Peter?"

Sirius shrugged, "Just like you more, I s'pose."

Lily shook her head, laughing all the same. "Play nice. And I think Potter may surprise you, with the sentimentality, I mean."

The Marauder snorted, "Still takes a lot to get used to, you dating Prongs, after all this time."

"It is a bit weird." Lily agreed, smiling. "Not what I would have expected a year ago."

"Oh, I expected it, knew it, even. You just needed to realize that he's irresistible and that you wanted to shag is brains out." Lily hit him again, harder this time. He grinned at her, sillier this time, the grin he always had on his face before the attacks and the war brought him down.

"Are you still going to call him 'Potter' when you're married?" The wizard swung his legs off of the Head Girl's bed and fiddled with the loose bit of blanket that hung off the end.

Lily, realizing that the conversation had turned light again, laughed. "Yeah right. Married? Who the hell would get married in the middle of a war? We have more important things to worry about. Surviving, for example."

"Thought you said no one was going to die, Miss Optimist?" Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well we won't if we don't worry about silly things like marriage!"

The marauder did not get a chance to respond, however, as the door swung open, emitting James Potter.

"Who's getting married?" He wanted to know, eyebrows raised at his girlfriend and his best mate together on the former's bed.

"We are," Sirius told his fellow marauder, reaching for Lily's hand on the bed. "Sorry Prongs, couldn't hold off any longer, didn't want you to find out this way." He kissed the laughing redhead on the cheek and hopped off her bed, heading for the door.

"Oh, sod off." James pushed his friend out the door.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." He advised.

"So free reign, then?" James guessed. Sirius winked and shut the door behind him.

"Git." James muttered, sitting down next to Lily, who remained on the bed. "What'd he want?"

"My hand in marriage, he's just told you." James made a face and Lily kissed him. He reciprocated, but cut it short.

"Is everything alright?" He wanted to know.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Was my snogging unsatisfactory?" Her lips twitched at the hint of a smile as her boyfriend snorted.

"Never. But it's not often I find you and Padfoot together in bed late at night."

Lily raised an eyebrow, "Jealous?" She teased.

James laughed, "Right, like you'd ever go for Sirius Black."

"I went for James Potter. Practically the same, yeah?" James rolled his eyes at her, a smile creeping up on his lips.

"Don't insult me, please. Why was Sirius here?" He didn't appear unhappy, simply worried and Lily recognized this causing her to sigh. She considered, for a brief moment, relaying her conversation with his best mate to James, but quickly decided that some things aren't meant to be discussed.

"Nothing, really. School, exams, similar rubbish." She kissed him again, this time more fervently and his arms wound around her waist as her kissed her back, equally as greedy.

"You're a horrid liar, you know." He told her, between the kisses he had begun planting on her neck.

"And you're a horrid kisser." She shot back, breathless, her hands in his hair.

The Head Boy laughed, "Now, that's just untrue."

"Humble, aren't you?" Lily grumbled, but James' lips found hers again and neither had anything more to say on the subject.

* * *

**A/N: Reviews are like fluffy Jily fics after a really bad day. So, you know, necessary and appreciated.**

**Thank you for existing,**

**Jess**


End file.
